Cruise ship safety management in Asian regions: Trends and future outlook

The sinking of the Titanic has brought cruise ship safety onto the international agenda. However, different shipwrecks have been occurring in the cruise industry with relatively high frequency for more than one century due to human errors. In order to improve cruise ship safety, the International Maritime Organization and the Cruise Lines International Association introduced a set of safety enhancement policies and measurements. However, the expansion of ships and fairly weak safety regulations continue to pose risks of human life loss during cruise ship accidents, particularly in Asian regions. Asian countries have been constantly implementing various safety measures, but serious cruise ship accidents still occur from time to time, even after significant past experiences. Are the cruise ship accidents predominantly the result of human failures and organizational factors? This paper undertakes a detailed historical review of cruise ship accidents since 1972 through an intensive overview of the documents published by the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention and the Maritime Safety Committee. Furthermore, a set of case studies of representative cruise ship accidents are conducted as a part of this study. The outcomes of this study will help cruise shipping companies to better understand the factors influencing cruise ship accident occurrence and to construct appropriate safety policy measures, aiming to prevent cruise ship accidents in Asian regions.